Summary
– African relay teams prepare for 2024 Olympics in Paris
– Botswana makes history at World Athletics Relays Bahamas ’24
– Nigeria, Botswana, Ghana, South Africa, Liberia, Côte D’Ivoire represented
– Botswana wins men’s 4x400m, Nigeria qualifies in multiple events
– Nigerian and Ghanaian athletes celebrate together
– Letsile Tebogo: Botswana sprinter’s achievements and records
Relay teams from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Côte D’Ivoire and Liberia are gearing up to head to Paris this summer to represent their countries in several races at the 2024 Olympics.
Botswana Writes History
At the just concluded World Athletics Relays Bahamas ‘24, Botswana made history as the first African country to win a men’s sprint event at the World Relays. Eight months after getting disqualified at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Botswana’s men’s 4x400m team cruised to win gold on Sunday, with a world-leading time of 2:59.11 minutes, anchored by a blistering 43.72 seconds split by versatile sprinter Letsile Tebogo.
Botswana’s dominance was pronounced by the 1.64 seconds time gap between them and runners up, South Africa. On Saturday, the men’s 4x400m of both Southern African countries qualified for the summer Olympics in Paris, alongside Nigeria’s team which finished outside the podium places during in the finals.
Held in Nassau, this year’s World Relays served as Olympic qualifiers for 70 out of the 80 spots across five relay events.
Ten African teams from six countries qualified for four events, with no African representative making it into the women’s 4x400m Olympic event.
Nigeria Storms Paris
Nigeria qualified in all the other events, making it one of six countries to qualify for four events.
In addition to the men’s 4x400m, Nigeria’s mixed 4x400m team secured its Olympics berth by qualifying for the final.
The team finished just outside the top three podium places, but recorded a new African record of 3:12.87 minutes.
The West African country’s 4x100m teams qualified for the Olympics on Sunday, with the women’s team winning its Olympic qualifying heat event and the men’s team coming in as runners up in heat two.
The men’s 4x100m teams of Liberia, Ghana and South Africa also secured spots through the Olympic qualifying heat events.
Ghana and South Africa won heats two and three respectively, while Liberia placed second in heat one.
In one of the several heart-warming videos that filled social media, Nigerian and Ghanaian athletes jumped and danced together in celebration of their Olympic qualifications.
Joining Nigeria as the only other African country to qualify for the women’s 4x100m event, Côte D’Ivoire finished second in heat two of the Olympic qualifying round. Speaking in a media interview shortly after the race, the Ivorian team said it was incredibly delighted to have made it to Paris despite having freelanced their way through the qualifying process.
These are the African Relay teams who have qualified for Paris 2024 Olympics:
Mixed 4x400m: Nigeria
Men’s 4x400m: Botswana, South Africa, Nigeria
Men’s 4x100m: Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Liberia
Women’s 4×100: Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire
Letsile Tebogo Profile
Letsile Tebogo (born 7 June 2003) is a Botswana sprinter. He achieved the silver medal at the 2023 World Championships in the 100 m and followed it up with a bronze medal in the 200 m 5 days later.
Tebogo won in the 100 metres and placed second in the 200 metres at both the 2021 and 2022 World Athletics Under-20 Championships.
In 2021, Tebogo became the first Botswana athlete to claim the 100m title at any World Championships level.
He is the 200m 2022 African champion, becoming the youngest winner of this title in competition history. Tebogo broke the 300m world best, running a time of 30.69 seconds on February 17, 2024 at altitude in Pretoria, South Africa.
Letsile Tebogo gained his first international experience at the age of 17 at the 2021 World Athletics Relays held in May in Chorzów, Poland.
In August, he competed at the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, winning the 100 metres and finishing second in the 200 metres.
On 19 February 2022, the 18-year-old set a new national record in the 100m at the Botswana Athletics Championships with a time of 10.08 seconds.
Two months later, he became the first man from Botswana to break the 10-second barrier at the event as he clocked a time of 9.96 seconds at the Gaborone International Meet, setting a new world under-20 record.
On 15 July, he further improved his record in his debut race at the World Athletics Championships held in Eugene, Oregon, with a time of 9.94 seconds. The following month, Tebogo broke his own record again, clocking a 9.91 second performance in the final of the World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
At the end of the race he celebrated early, drawing comparisons to 100m and 200m world records holder Usain Bolt.
Circuit wins and titles
Diamond League
2023: Lausanne Athletissima (200 m)
